CHICAGOAN LEAVES FCC WITH THINGS GOING HIS WAY

Andrew Barrett, an outspoken and fiercely independent member of the Federal Communications Commission, isn't shy about saying he is leaving his prestigious job to make a bundle in the private sector.

But he'll also tell you he's departing because he feels a bit redundant. This year's enactment of a law to deregulate the nation's telecommunications industry has the Chicago free-market disciple feeling a bit like a general after the war is over.

"I probably would be staying if the bill hadn't passed," the 55-year-old Republican said in a recent interview in the agency office he will soon vacate.

But it did and he's not, despite many requests that he remain to help implement the law. One usually dignified GOP lawmaker said he would get on his hands and knees if it would make Barrett change his mind.

Barrett, a lawyer and former teacher, declines to say precisely where he's headed. A telecommunications trade newsletter, however, said recently that he will join the Washington office of Chicago-based Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. That job reportedly would pay him a lot more than the $115,000 he made as a commissioner.

As he prepares for his first job in the for-profit sector--the Hyde Park native has been on the FCC since 1989, was with the Illinois Commerce Commission for nine years before that and held other public-service posts--he reflected on what he's leaving behind, including the promising, if hazy, telecommunications future.

Barrett relished being a regulator at one of the nation's most important agencies during a time of seismic change. Besides the challenge of trying to balance the often-complex interests of consumers and business, it meant getting courtesy calls and anti-smoking lectures from the likes of Ted Turner.

As a commissioner, he gained a reputation as no one's water carrier, sometimes voting against former Chairman Alfred Sikes, a fellow Republican.

He was so concerned about appearances that in his 16 years at the FCC and ICC, he never visited his colleagues' homes for fear they might talk even briefly about a pending case and unduly influence the outcome.

That's why Barrett is bothered by what he views as current FCC Chairman Reed Hundt's too cozy relationship with the Clinton administration.

"Recently, it has come closer to my seeing some political ideology than I've ever seen in 16 years in this business, and that bothers me," he said between cigarettes.

Hundt has been the FCC's leading proponent of mandates to compel broadcasters to program at least three hours a week of educational children's programming, which the administration strongly supports.

Barrett favors the goal of more quality programming for children but hates mandates. When Hundt last year accused Barrett and another commissioner, based on such opposition, of waging an anti-children campaign, Barrett publicly fumed that Hundt was a "gutless liar."

Now he says: "I'm not sure it enhanced our relationship. I should've said that privately."

Barrett and Hundt have made up. And Barrett says he regrets the FCC didn't make headway on getting broadcasters to voluntarily commit to more children's programming. "Reed Hundt is absolutely right in wanting to see more children's TV," Barrett said.

Though a true believer in deregulation, Barrett sees the new telecommunications law as a mixed blessing.

Control of the media will undoubtedly fall into hands of a few giant firms, he said.

For instance, he predicts, within five years there will be only five major cable companies, with the rest of the cable business owned by phone companies. He expects the same in broadcasting.

"The days when you and I could go out and buy one or two radio stations, those days are gone. That hurts, most of all, women and minorities," said Barrett, the former executive director of the Chicago chapter of the NAACP.

Barrett believes the FCC will eventually shrink in size because it has less to regulate, yet he is certain it can carry out its role of removing competitive barriers while preventing the emergence of monopolies. But the FCC will have to be especially vigilant.

"What will bring Congress and the courts back to reregulate will be a lot of anti-consumer behavior. And that can happen."